Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Development of Monumental Architecture

Studies of early monumental architecture have traditionally focused on the scale of buildings and their final configuration, often employing a quantitative perspective. This doctoral dissertation project integrates additional analytical frameworks to assess the emergence of monumental works as a process that articulates different levels of analysis over time.

The research sheds new light on one of the most critical periods in history when large, monumental constructions flourished before the rise of states, offering a new case study on how societies achieved monumentality as a process unrelated to top-down state-sponsored works. The project provides training for a graduate student in scientific methods of data collection and analysis, and builds capacity for future scientific research.

This doctoral dissertation project evaluates the emergence of monumental architecture, the associated social practices, and the role that competition and corporate organizations played during the construction of ritual spaces. This period saw the regional rise of massive pyramidal complexes with an enigmatic U-shaped architectural pattern. Using archaeology and geospatial analysis, a monumental U-shaped ritual complex is studied to understand its architectural design, spatial organization, and construction practices over time.

Four questions guide this research: (1) What types of activities took place in the different buildings, and how did different social groups participate in them? (2) how did the structures change over time? (3) what role did the structures play in existing interregional interaction and exchange spheres? and (4) on a regional scale, how does the distribution of U-shaped structures reveal patterns of societal organization? To address these questions, the research conducts excavations in different site areas, analyzes the different cultural assemblages, examines the changes in the architecture and constructive techniques, and compiles a geospatial database of other U-shaped structures.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.